User blog:NibiruMul/NibiruMul's Naming Advice
I wanted to do some advice for quite a while, and since I woke up early today, I figured I'd make it today. I know I'm not an admin, so don't take this advice too seriously! Advice General names *It's best to give your OC a name evocative of their story. For example, it would make perfect sense for an OC based on the Fairy with the Turquoise Hair from Pinocchio to be named Azure, since azure is a shade of blue. *Word names are encouraged! They're probably more common within the EAH universe than they are in real life. I mean, within the canon cast, we've got Apple, Raven, Sparrow, Duchess, Cedar, Daring, and Darling. *Try not to give your OC something that sounds really embarrassing unless it's intended to be so. *As of 2016, most of our OCs would have been born in the late 90s/early 2000s, so looking up the popularity charts for that time period might help. *Behind the Name is probably your best bet if you want to look up etymologies. *It's not a good idea to use names from fairy tale adaptations. Examples of this would be naming a Little Mermaid daughter something similar to Ariel or Melody, an OC based on the Talking Cricket from Pinocchio named something similar to Jiminy, a Wicked Witch of the West daughter named something similar to Elphaba, an OC based on the prince from Rapunzel named something similar to Flynn, ugly stepsisters daughters with the surname Tremaine or names similar to Anastasia and Drizella. This goes for any adapations, famous or obscure, books or movies. This is because doing so would imply that your OC is based on the adaptation and not the original story. **Some names used in adaptations, like Marina (which is the name of the mermaid in some non-Disney adaptations of The Little Mermaid), are generic enough that they probably won't be immediately associated with the adaptations. *If someone else has created an OC with a given name/surname combo (such as Bella Rose, which I've seen on tons of OCs), it's best that you choose a different name. *It's also okay to give twin OCs similar names. While I hate this custom IRL, it's common for parents in many cultures to do this. *Using a given name that is the same as the given name of a canon character is usually okay, but it's discouraged. I admit, I do have two OCs who share names with canon characters (Holly and Justine). It's not recommended that you use a name borne by a very important canon character, like Apple or Raven. *You can use names that you don't like. For example, I'm not that crazy about the name Justin, but I thought it suited Justin Souris very well. *As a side note, princesses with names ending in -bella are really cliche. There are lots of other names meaning "beautiful". Specific types of OCs *If your OC is a Charming, adjective names based on positive attributes would be a good idea. Look at Daring, Dexter (dextrous), and Darling. If your Charming is more of a Charmless, negative adjectives work too. Ethnic names *If your OC is the same nationality as their story, looking up ethnic names is your best bet. Just make sure the name doesn't have any embarrassing slang meaning in the same language (which is how some names fall out of use, such as Fanny and Dick). *Using word names in another language is okay. I mean, I know in a lot of countries this isn't done, but maybe it's different in the world of Ever After High? *Remember to get genders correct! Non-English-speaking countries generally don't use boys' names on girls or vice versa. Take the Russian name Nikita, for example. Despite ending in -ita, it's a masculine name. Even though Simone is a feminine name in France, it's a masculine name in Italy. Laurence may be masculine in English, but it's feminine in French. Many countries, especially non-European countries, have unisex names. *Be careful with using diminutives as given names. For example, while Sasha, Lena, Tanya, Katya, Lara, and Natasha, have become legal names in the West, they are only considered nicknames in Russia. *It's okay if the name is rare or considered old-fashioned in the specific language. Many of my French OCs have names that are old-fashioned or rare in real-world France. (To be fair, I did save most of the rarer names for the princes and princesses.) Maybe name popularity in EAH's world is different than name popularity in the real world! *Remember that some languages, like English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Arabic, are now spoken all over the world. In much of Africa, it's pretty normal to encounter people with European first names. *Also remember that nationality is different from ethnicity, as some countries, like India, have multiple indigenous ethnic groups. Certain names might only be used by specific ethnicities. For example, it might look weird having an ethnic Russian OC with a name like Ildar or Golnara, since those are both Tatar names (Tatars are a mainly Muslim ethnic group indigenous to Russia) and ethnic Russians generally don't use them. **Religion also often factors into naming as well. For example, it's very unlikely that a Muslim would name their daughter Caitlin or a Buddhist would name their son Muhammad. *If the language uses a writing system other than Latin, different transliterations are fine. For example, the Arabic name Muhammad has a plethora of transliterations. Just note that some people might prefer a specific transliteration, even if it isn't the most direct, such as how Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko usually uses that transliteration of his name even though Yevgeny Plyushchenko is the more direct transliteration of his name (as the sh sound in his name is represented by the letter щ, which translates into shch) - but both transliterations are considered correct. TL;DR, in other words, it doesn't matter if your Russian OC is Maria, Mariya, or Marya - all of those are correct. **Diacritics as part of transliteration are okay. *Try not to overuse stock foreign names. (Stock foreign names are names that are stereotypically associated with one country. For example, my own name, Erik, is stereotypically associated with Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway, even though I'm an American primarily of Italian descent and don't have any Scandinavian in me.) *On the same note, try not to name them after a famous person from their country. It depends on how many famous people from the country have the name, how famous said person is, and how common the name is in the country. For example, the name Anastasia is very common in Russia, so even if you think of the Grand Duchess Anastasia, there are many other Russian women (both famous and non-famous) with the name too. On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to name a Brazilian OC Neymar since the name is heavily associated with the soccer player. If you're not careful with this, it could come off as stereotyping. Surnames *Make sure the surname has to do with their parents' story. This is important especially if your OC's first name doesn't have anything to do with their story. For example, it would make sense that an OC based on Princess Rosette would have a surname like Rose, Rosette, Peacock, or Paon (french for peacock), since the protagonist is named Rosette and peacocks are a major part of the story. It wouldn't make sense for the same OC to have Camel as a surname since camels don't appear in Princess Rosette. *A good tip would be to look on surname websites. If it's a non-English surname and you speak the language, you could probably figure what it means. Be careful, though - some surnames have more than one meaning, even in the same language! *Remember, it's okay if your OC has their mother's surname instead of their father's. These days, there are men who take their wives' surnames. (In a few cultures, such as Japan, it's traditional for a man to take his wife's surname if she has no brothers.) *In some languages, such as Russian, Polish, and Greek, surnames are gendered. For example, in Russia, the surname Gagarin would indicate a man, but Gagarina would indicate a woman. Now to apply it to an OC: take the Russian fairy tale The White Duck, create a daughter of the queen who gets turned into a duck, and you give her the surname Utkin, which comes from the Russian word for duck. It would make more sense if it were written Utkina, as that would show she is a girl. This would actually be a good place to look up famous people from said countries to get an idea for surnames. *In some countries, such as China, Japan, and Hungary, the surname goes before the given name. This is called Eastern name order. I think a good idea would be to imagine what order your OC would prefer. For example, my OC Zoltan Turul uses Western name order when he's at EAH but he uses Eastern name order when he's back in his home country. **Don't worry if someone has an OC from one of these countries that uses Western name order. Insisting on Eastern name order only can come across as being a bit of a purist. *Remember, just because two OCs from different stories have the same surname doesn't automatically mean they're related. For example, I'm pretty sure Sparrow Hood and Cerise Hood aren't related. Category:Blog posts